Albi R27 452/500 (UPDATE 09.01.2013)

[Knuckles]

Dafuq did you get that mpg lol!?!?!?

loving the OCD clean, I've bought a litre of ironX and tardis so ill be giving mine a good anal detail this weekend or next

 

[jmaxphotography]

Dafuq did you get that mpg lol!?!?!?

loving the OCD clean, I've bought a litre of ironX and tardis so ill be giving mine a good anal detail this weekend or next

Lol the mpg was easy enough to get, I could have got it a lot higher had I not had to go into a city, but it did take a lot of concentration and not going over about 50mph.

I have IronX and Tardis waiting for mine too, but I think I'll leave it until a bit closer to Easter before using them. The roads are still in pretty crap condition and I think it would be a waste of time doing it now.

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 25.02.2013


Today saw me taking advantage of the good weather and giving the car a clean after it collecting a weekends worth of dirt.


I started with a nice coating of snow foam to make the cleaning that much easier.

Time to give the car a rinse.

Looking at it from a distance all looks fine.

However its not until you get a bit closer to the car that you can really notice how bad it is for collecting tar.

The wheels were also particularly bad for collecting tar, but this is to be expected.

It was nice to see that the plastics I had dressed with the Auto Finesse Revive were still beading well.

As it was a nice day I felt I should take advantage of it and spend my time doing a bit more work around the car. So I took the decision to take the tar off it. Part of me still thinks it’s a bit early in the year to be doing this but I guess only time will tell.


So I applied some Tardis and left it to work away.

Some of the stone chips that will need touched in.

Time for another snow foam and wash to get rid of any excess Tardis.

Drying time…

With the car dried off its now looking a lot nicer and ready to have the Iron X applied.


So hopefully that’ll happen tomorrow if it’s a passable day weather wise.


John

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 27.02.2013


So I was supposed to do this yesterday but unfortunately I spent all day yesterday dying with the flu, but better late than never I guess.


The last update saw me detarring the bodywork of the car and today I decided it was time to take care of the wheels.

I decided that for the first stage on the wheels that I would try out the Iron X I had recently purchased as the wheels were dry and I’d been advised to not use it on damp surfaces.

I then gave the wheels a rinse to get rid of the Iron X.

Next it was on the Tardis to remove the tar from the wheels.

While the wheels were off I felt is was best to tidy up the arches and tidy up the break calipers.

Wheel arches detarred and tidied up.

As you can see there are some tar spots on the rear calipers also.

Wheels back on, and I’m more than happy with how they’ve turned out.

I just need to get myself a good sealant for the wheels now, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to leave them in a message below.


John

 

[Stefan.]

great effort!! :approve:

 

[Lawro]

Looks lovely.. Good work!

 

[jmaxphotography]

Thanks very much guys.

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 28.02.2013

So when I woke up this morning and saw it was another lovely day I decided yet again tidying up the R27.

The first part of todays work was to Iron X the bodywork of the car.

There didn’t seem to be much iron build up on the car, which didn’t really surprise me as the car has just over 20000 miles on it.

The Iron X was quickly rinsed off, as I didn’t want to risk if marking the paintwork.

I then dried the car off as I was going to go straight to the polishing stage.

But then I bumped into my clay bar at the back of the garage and decided to give the car a once over.

The dirt on the clay bar is just from the windscreen.

With the whole car clayed it was time for another snow foam and wash.

Someone had asked me which snow foam I use, so here it is…

Left to so its business for about 5 minutes.

Time for another rinse.

My lovely eBay mitt…

Dried off again.

Not a bad reflection from the bonnet pre polish.

Poorboys polish with carnauba being applied.

Love the reflection now.

Using cotton buds to clean around the badges.

Nice shot to show off the reflection and depth of colour.

Tyre dressing time with Auto Finesse Satin.

Grills dressed using Auto Finesse Revive.

And onto the interior.

Thankfully it wasn’t too bad, just needed a quick hover and the mats given a once over with a stiff bristled brush.

The finished car.

There are a few minor things that still need looked at like the stone chips, but I’m happy to leave them until around Easter time, when the roads are hopefully in a better condition and the chance of getting more stone chips decreases.

Thanks for reading and any comments or questions you have are more than welcome.

John

 

[.Stevo.C.]

Stunning car mate.

 

[jmaxphotography]

Stunning car mate.

Thanks very much sir.

 

[Kitson93]

That is one of the best looking clios i have ever seen! Love that colour too mate!

Where in Northern Ireland are you from too?
Im out the Ballymena direction here.

 

[Lawro]

Colour looks awesome!

 

[leeds_182]

Very clean dude.

 

[jmaxphotography]

That is one of the best looking clios i have ever seen! Love that colour too mate!

Where in Northern Ireland are you from too?
Im out the Ballymena direction here.

Thanks very much. I'm based near Banbridge.

Colour looks awesome!

Thanks very much, it made a massive difference once the car was cleaned properly.

Very clean dude.

Thanks very much.

 

[jmaxphotography]

Re: Albi R27 452/500 (UPDATE 07.03.2013)

UPDATE 07.03.2013

Things have been a bit quiet on the Clio front over the past week or so, I’ve mainly just been driving and enjoying it. However over the past couple of days it has rained, which has given me the chance to grab a couple of beading shots.

Also today I felt it was about time that I changed my California Scents air freshener. I opted to go for Golden State Delight as the replacement of the Orange which I’d originally had.

I had the orange placed in the front cup holders, but part of me thinks it would be better placed in the cup holder between the Recaros.

Where do you think it would be better situated?

John

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 13.03.2013


First off here’s another beading shot I forgot to include in my previous update.

Ok due to the weather being a bit on the dodgy side this week, between snow and rain showers the Clio has had a bit of a rough time of it and has looked in better shape.

I didn’t think I was that hard on my EZ Detail wheel brush but unfortunately during todays clean it died on me.

And the replacement, a Valet Pro long reach brush. It’ll be interesting to see how long this one lasts.

As you may have noticed on a couple of my previous updates, since I had the wheels off to clean them I haven’t had the lock nuts back in place.

And this is the reason why.

In typical Renault fashion the lock nut key is made from jelly and has cracked.

Also the key thread has seen better days.

Bring on the new replacements, McGard Black Edition. These will hopefully last a lot better than the standard Renault rubbish.

I’m over the moon with how they look along side the nut caps.

John

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 01.04.2013


So things have been a bit quite over the past two to three weeks on the clio front as I've been laid up with a bad back. But with basically being restricted to the house I've been spending a bit more time on eBay looking for random odds and ends to add to the clio.


A sight thats common to most 197 owners.

My latest purchase.

I'm not 100% sure I needed this as I have no spare wheel in the car to change over if I get a flat, but at least the tool kit in the boot is not complete.

John

 

[adam1942]

Looks ace John really wish I hadn't sold my R27 to Cro now!

350z will hopefully be going with another R27 in its place..

It would seem I am just as anal about cleaning as you are! (https://plus.google.com/photos/113096745828978616388/albums/5479344789224761921?banner=pwa)

Car looks great! If you see a 350z flashing and waving like a complete knob its me!!

 

[jmaxphotography]

Looks ace John really wish I hadn't sold my R27 to Cro now!

350z will hopefully be going with another R27 in its place..

It would seem I am just as anal about cleaning as you are! (https://plus.google.com/photos/113096745828978616388/albums/5479344789224761921?banner=pwa)

Car looks great! If you see a 350z flashing and waving like a complete knob its me!!

Thanks very much Adam.

I'm sure you've had plenty of fun with the 350z since getting it. I'm not sure about the whole going back to a car you once owned thing, I think the memories make it seem like a good idea but second time around it just mightn't live up to the memories. 200's are getting good value now and could be a good option as well as being something different from what you previously had.

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 10.04.2013

Yesterday saw me finally getting around to touching in some of the stone chips on the R27. I'd waiting off until now in the hope the temperature would rise a bit and thankfully it did.

Unfortunately due to the typical Northern Irish weather when I woke up this morning it was raining, so applying the lacquer will have to wait.


New Addition


Not happy with just the R27 around the house we also added this two year old 200RS with just 847 miles.

There will be a thread coming for it very soon I'd sure.


John

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 14.04.2013

While cleaning the car recently I found this mark at the top of the bonnet. I know its not something that I've done as I’m always careful around the car, so I can only think it has been caused by someone thinking they were being smart and trying to put the wipers up.

I’ll have to see if I can touch it in and then maybe sad it down do it doesn’t stand out too much.


John

 

[Knuckles]

It's poor wiper design mate, mine has it from when I bought the car. Thankfully it's not as deep as yours though

 

[.Stevo.C.]

The meganes are the same. Took the wiper arm off and put it back on sitting slightly higher so it was missing the bonnet.

 

[jmaxphotography]

It's poor wiper design mate, mine has it from when I bought the car. Thankfully it's not as deep as yours though

It annoys the hell outta me why people can't just keep their hands to themselves. I mean its hardly the best joke in the world to put a set of wipers up on a car.

The meganes are the same. Took the wiper arm off and put it back on sitting slightly higher so it was missing the bonnet.

Excellent idea Stevo, might give this a go. I assume it doesn't affect the sweep of the wipers at all?

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 16.04.2013

So after the bonnet being scratched by some tosser trying to put the wipers up, I've had to set about touching it in.

First coat

Second coat

Its slowly getting there, next step will be to apply the lacquer. I can't decide if I should sand it down once all this is done to try and blend it in even more. I guess that will just depend on how visible it is after the lacquer is applied.

John

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 20.05.2013

Over the past month or so things have been pretty quiet on the Clio front,I’ve mainly just been driving and enjoying the car.


I did finish the retouching of the scrape on the bonet by applying the lacquer

I was then trawling through eBay one day and bumped into this and thought it would be a great addition to the car and something handy to keeo in the pocket of the door.

Upon delivery I was over the moon with my latest purchase.

That was until I opened it out to find this.

Thankfully the person I had purchased if from gave me a full refund with no questions asked.


Both clios cleaned and ready to go on the morning of my brothers wedding.

As I said I’ve been driving the car a bit more recently and I had noticed the exhaust getting a bit noisier and starting to pop on most gear changes. Over the past couple of days its been getting particularly loud so I guessed I had a blow out somewhere in the system. Of course reading other posts I was fearing that it was the manifold on the way out, so I took the car into a local exhaust specialist to get a diagnosis, and this is what greated me…

A lovely crack on the first cat. I’m currently undecided as to what I should do, should I fit a KTR MANIFOLD PRE CAT DELETE PIPE, a new stainless steel manifold or just get it welded. I had been playing with the idea of getting the cat taken out anyway so the first two options would take car of that, although I could get it welded and remove the second cat instead.


John

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 06.06.2013

So following on from my previous update about the cat having split, the car has been into the garage and had it repaired. I have chosen to leave the second cat in place, as I don’t feel there will be any significant change to warrant taking it out.


When the car was in the garage the mechanic said there was a bit of movement at the bottom of the engine and this might have caused the cat to split, he advised me that I should think about purchasing an ENGINE TORQUE LINK. So I went hunting online for the best deal and I found it at Spoox.

Hopefully I'll get it fitted in the next week or two.

If only the golf had have been as good as the car looked I’d have been happy.


John

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 12.06.2013

At the start of the week I had decided to spend a bit of time cleaning up and dressing the plastics on the car. This was all done once again using Auto Finesse Revive.

As promised a picture of the fixed cat. It was welded and polished a bit, although we didn’t want to take it down too much as we wanted to keep as strong a bond as possible.

It was then onto fitting me new engine torque link.

Old vs. new

So with the new torque link fitted I have to say the car feels so much better to drive. Yes there is increased vibration but I feel its now the way a Renault Sport should feel. It feels rough around the edges and its like its just begging to be driven hard.


I woke up this morning to be greated by this…

I’ve no idea what had caused it as the car had only been exposed to rain water, so I decided to set about correcting it.


I started off with a simple wash..

and as you can see it seemed to be doing the job of sorting the stickers out.

So after the car was dried off the stickers seemed to be back in the condition I would expect them to be. I decided to leave them as they are, although I may apply a layer of Auto Finesse Revive the next time I clean the car.

The finished product…

John

 

[-J-]

Looks lovely.

Maybe a coat if AF Tough Coat over the stickers might help keep them tidy.

 

[bpclio]

Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

I am currently considering buying one of these, all original victory yellow manual with 28,000 kms (18,500 miles). I don't know a lot about cars but I know I thoroughly enjoyed driving it. My two reservations are whether or not it is enjoyable as a daily drive in a big city, and how much it is going to cost me to maintain mechanically. I know it has some pretty high end parts which I assume are not cheap. If any R27 owners have any input on these points I would love to read it.

 

[JaredHasNoBrain]

Love this! You coming to CSS, Would love to see it in person.

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 15.07.2013

So I know I’ve been a bit quiet recently but that’s because there hasn’t really been much going on with the R27 lately. The mileage has dropped through the floor and I’ve just been keeping a low profile.


That was until Saturday morning when I woke up to be greeted by this…

A neighbor of mine had decided to have a rather large bonfire as part of the 11th/12th July celebrations and forgot to mention this to us. So on Saturday morning I woke up to fine the car covered in ash and dust from the bonfire.


So I decided I would spend a bit of time tidying the car up.


First off was a quick rinse, just to blow as much of the debris off as possible.

I then applied some Elite alloy wheel cleaner to the wheels to break into small amount of break dust that was on the rim.

Followed by some Elite Blizzard snow foam.

The snow foam was left to dwell on the car for about 10 minutes

Before being rinsed off and washed with mitt and Meguiar's Gold Class Shampoo.

The wheels were washed using my old favourite, Fairy Liquid (yes I do know to keep it away from the body work).

The car was then dried off.

And the engine bay plastics dressed.

A couple of reflection shots.

My attention then turned to the plastics surrounding the windscreen and scuttle panel.

Which were quickly dressed using Auto Finesse Revive.

That brings us up to today which was me deciding to basically repeat the whole process. To be followed by a full clay treatment and polish with Auto Glym Super Resin. This was then followed by a quick coat of Maguire’s Gold Glass Clear Coat Liquid Wax.


Here are some of the reflection pics

And one to show off the pop of the paint.

I’ve also spent a lot of time touching in the small stone chips around the front of the car and along the bottom of the skirts, so I think its safe to say I’m over the moon with how its looking at the moment.


It would be nice as always to hear your feedback.


John

 

[jmaxphotography]

Looks lovely.

Maybe a coat if AF Tough Coat over the stickers might help keep them tidy.

I dunno whats causing it to be honest, I use Auto Finesse Revive to protect them and its usually fine.

 

[jmaxphotography]

Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

I am currently considering buying one of these, all original victory yellow manual with 28,000 kms (18,500 miles). I don't know a lot about cars but I know I thoroughly enjoyed driving it. My two reservations are whether or not it is enjoyable as a daily drive in a big city, and how much it is going to cost me to maintain mechanically. I know it has some pretty high end parts which I assume are not cheap. If any R27 owners have any input on these points I would love to read it.

Thanks very much. As a daily driver its fine, the fuel economy can be good I've had mine north of 36mpg when not being driven hard. As for the maintaining of it mechanically that depends very much on if you go to a renault garage or not, they know how to charge for their time. If you go to a local mechanic they will be fine. As for parts, they tend not to break anything, unless badly treated and with the one your looking at only having 18,500 miles it should be in excellent mechanical condition.

Hope that helps, and if you have anymore questions just fire them my way.

 

[jmaxphotography]

Love this! You coming to CSS, Would love to see it in person.

Unfortunately I wont be making the trip over this time around, I might start saving for a trip over next year.

 

[jmaxphotography]

UPDATE 17.07.2013

I’ll start this update with a couple of pictures of products I used in both this and the previous update.

Snow Foam

Clay

Polish

Wax

I decided to give the rear of the car a second coat of polish and wax as I wasn’t overly happy with how it was looking, but I’m a lot happier with it now.

Although it isn’t all that clear there was a bad bird dropping mark on the roof.

Thankfully it came out with some Poorboys SSR 2, which was simply applied by hand.

I’ve noticed recently my passenger door handle is looking a bit worse for wear. I wonder if I chanced my arm would this be covered under paint and bodywork warranty?

Being at a bit of a loose end in the afternoon I thought it would be a good idea to polish up the passenger side sub frame

I’m not sure if it was a waste of time or not, and I’m not sure if it really looks any better, but it did pass a few more minutes lol.


John

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 19.07.2013
I decided to try and reduce the chances of stone chips on the edge of the doorframe (3 ¼ panel) by adding some clear vinyl.

I was out for work yesterday and I noticed the car wasn’t as sharp and responsive as it is, think this might be the cause.

After my days work this is what I was greeted by when I finally stepped out of the car at home. So much for all the hard work put in over the past week lol.

And this is what happens when you let two models and a makeup artist loose around a Clio unsupervised.

My latest purchase, some Wolf’s Chemicals White Satin Auto Shampoo. I decided to by this as I was fed up using shampoo that created next to no foam.

And I found this in the back of the garage, had forgotten all about having it.

As you can see here, no lack of foam.

I was really happy with how the shampoo performed, it felt really smooth and the mitt glided easily over the bodywork. Also the foam was present throughout the washing process and if it looked like it needed livening up again all I had to do was hit it a quick blast with the hose.

Some beading shots.

All nice and clean again…

I spotted these marks on the vinyl on the roof, will have a look at them tomorrow morning while the roof is cool to see if I can get them shifted.

John

 

[Kitson93]

Top quality job. Perfection right there!

​You get them seats sorted from that make up?

 

[jmaxphotography]

Top quality job. Perfection right there!

​You get them seats sorted from that make up?

No not yet, going to sort the interior and the roof stickers this morning.

 

[jmaxphotography]

​UPDATE 20.07.2013
So this morning it was time to tidy up the mess left by the models…


Mats removed, carpet hovered.

Some upholstery cleaner was used to shift the makeup off the seat.

As new…

A stiff bristled brush to tidy up the mats

With the interior now back the way it should be it was time to turn my attention to those troublesome stickers once again.

I tried using the autoglass and a nail brush, which has worked to remove watermarks in the past but this didn’t even make an impression on the dirty marks. If anyone has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.

How the car is currently looking.

I’m toying with the idea of putting yellow lamin-x on the fog lights, but I’m not sure if it would suit it or not.

As always your help and comments are more than welcome.


John